


A Rose Blooms, Despite The Soil

by verboseDescription



Series: Terrariums [1]
Category: Steven Universe (Cartoon)
Genre: (thats a weird way to put it but trust me), F/F, Pre Rebellion, Rose is not Pink Diamond Theory, The Rebellion
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-07-23
Updated: 2016-07-23
Packaged: 2018-07-26 03:42:58
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,773
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7558798
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/verboseDescription/pseuds/verboseDescription
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Rose is only a quartz. She's respected, sure, but she barely has any power compared to her fellow gems. None of them will listen to her. None of them understand how important this planet is.<br/>Except for one.</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Rose Blooms, Despite The Soil

Pearl has been made to be exactly what White Diamond asked her to be.

Happy. Beautiful. Attentive.

Rose knows that pearls aren’t made to be anything but what their owners wish, but somehow the moment they meet, Rose knows there’s more to her then the frills White Diamond has her dressed in.

When White Diamond assigns her to what is essentially a pearl job, Rose doesn’t bother wasting time arguing her position.

Instead, she watches.

 

Not in a weird way! She just… pays attention to the pearl.

Rose has never owned any gem, but she has always felt that there must be more to them then their design.

After all, Rose is not just a Rose Quartz, despite what Her Diamond says. She’s _Rose._ And the pearl is deserves more than being just a pearl, even if she decides that what she wants is to be Pearl.

They watch the other gems train together, sometimes. Rose is there because someone might get hurt and Pearl is there because no one has told her she couldn’t be.

“Do you think I could fight like that?” Rose asks. While Rose did know some basic moves, she was nowhere near as skilled as other quartzes she had met. Her Diamond hadn’t forbidden her from learning, but she had expressed a good amount of disapproval. After all, what did a healer need to know about fighting?

“The only thing you need to fight,” Pearl murmurs, “Is a weapon and an enemy.”

It’s the first thing Pearl says to her, and Rose mentally promises to remember it always.

“All I have is a shield,” Rose reminds her, giving the other gem a smile.

“Who says that can’t be a weapon?” Pearl shoots back.

 _Oh,_ Rose thinks.

And just like that, she’s in love.

 

The Earth mission is taking longer than it should. Everyone can tell, but no one can tell why. Rose doesn’t think it’s that bad, honestly—she likes the planet, and she likes the time spent away from Homeworld—but she can tell that the peridots won’t have any luck blaming each other.

Rose sees Pearl smirk at them from a distance and the gesture surprises her so much that Rose finds herself asking Pearl to spend the day with her.

Rose is fine with having one sided crush. It happens. A lot, admittedly. But she doesn’t want Pearl to just be a fading crush. Pearl is—

Well, she’s worth getting to know, to say the least.

 

“Isn’t this planet beautiful?” Rose asks gesturing at the plant life around them, “It’s so organic. Nothing like Homeworld at all.”

Rose loves all of it; the light breeze, the green grass, the tiny insects that go about pollinating the world, ensuring that everything will look just as beautiful tomorrow.

Pearl agrees with her and, with some gentle convincing, Rose finds out she’s most found of the flowers. Rose knows that her name probably has no relevance to Pearl’s appreciation for Earth’s flora, but it still gives her hope that the other gem might return her feelings.

More importantly, flowers were easy to find. It was nice to know that there was such a simple way to make Pearl happy.

Rose wants to tell Pearl that she’d plant a garden in her name, if she could, but Rose doesn’t want to ruin the moment. She’s not ashamed of her feelings, but she knows they might make things more difficult.

Rose can handle difficult. She’s not as timid as some gems say.

But that doesn’t mean she wants her relationship with Pearl to be one that makes her groan.

 

 

Rose doesn’t get the chance to talk to Pearl often. Even though the jobs they’ve been given aren’t very important to other gems, it doesn’t mean they aren’t being kept busy. Still, they’ve been hanging out enough for other gems to comment on it.

“Going to get yourself a pearl after this?” Crybaby, a jasper nicknamed so because of the gem on her cheek, asks.

“I don’t think it’s really my style,” Rose replies.

“So it’s just _one_ pearl you want then?” Crybaby grins, “And it’s the feral!”

“She doesn’t seem feral to me,” Rose says. She’s not surprised that Crybaby’s brought up a conversation like this, but she is surprised about the insults to Pearl. She didn’t think Crybaby cared about Pearl, for one thing.

“I guess you haven’t heard, then,” Crybaby says, “She disobeys gems all the time! The only one who can make her do anything is White Diamond, and She made sure to order her to behave on Earth, but Fively says she _swears_ she saw the pearl at training and she messing with the peridots’ stuff! None of them believed her, of course.”

“That’s very interesting.”

“I don’t know why White Diamond made her like that. Maybe she’s cracked—I hear she used to be nicer. At least she always obeys Her Diamond’s orders.”

Rose doesn’t say anything. She knows better than to say it out loud, but personally, she thinks Pearl is nice enough.

And personally, she likes Pearl just the way she is.

 

Rose doesn’t expect Pearl to ask Rose to go on a trip away from the gem settlement, but she agrees immediately. She could tell Pearl was looking a bit nervous, but Pearl generally was so Rose ignored it.

“And where is it you’re taking me?” Rose asks.

“You’ll see,” Pearl replies, sounding strained, “It’s just past this tree. You see that canyon?”

“Yes,” Rose says, “But Pearl why--,”

“—You’ll see!” Pearl cuts her off and gives a nervous laugh. She’s visibly anxious now, there’s no way Rose could miss the signs but instead of saying anything, Rose frowns and continues to follow Pearl.

She understands as soon as she sees the canyon in front of her and she can’t help but let out a gasp. Rose could see bits of grass and moss still flourishing, but the small amounts of green paled in comparison to the dark and empty canyon which was so gloomy it looked almost unnatural.

No.

No “almost.”

“This is a Kindergarten, isn’t it?” Rose asks. Pearl gives a small nod and Rose collapses, tears rolling down her cheeks. She’s aware of Pearl reaching out to her, but the other gem pulls back her hand and lets Rose cry.

She knows she can’t save the Earth with her tears. That doesn’t mean she won’t try.

“The organics,” Rose says suddenly, tears still flowing from her eyes, “There must have been some in this area. What happened to them?”

“I don’t know,” Pearl answers, “The closer lifeforms must have moved. We could… We could check to see if there’s still some nearby?”

Rose takes a deep breath and stands back up. She tries not to notice how little she helped the ground beneath her.

“We can’t stay any longer,” She says, “White Diamond will notice if I’m gone. I don’t want you in trouble for showing me what I already should have known.”

Pearl nods.

“We’ll come back as soon as I’m able,” Rose adds. She doesn’t want to see the Kindergarten again, but Pearl has done her a kindness in opening her eyes. Rose won’t let this kindness be for nothing.

 

“Why did you show me this?” Rose asks. She’s not angry, just sad, and grateful that Pearl has opened her eyes.

“Because My Diamond told me not to,” Pearl replies hesitantly, as if she wasn’t sure if Rose would understand.

Crybaby’s words echo in Rose’s head, but even without them, she’d know how much it meant that Pearl disobeyed a direct order.

Rose nods. She understands; Pearl’s braver then she could ever be.

 

They go back a week later.

They find a village that is small and worn. The organics look tired and their equipment is so far behind Homeworld’s Pearl’s surprised they managed at all. There’s nothing they can do but convince the town to move itself so that the organics living in it can live another day. With some forceful prodding, Pearl manages to convince the town leader to do just that. He makes claims of being visited by two “angels” giving warnings of a horrible fate that would befall everyone if they stay.

Rose wishes she could say he was wrong.

The town moves.

 

It’s hard to go back to the settlement after visiting the Kindergarten. All Rose wants to do is march up to the closest Diamond and demand an explanation for the horror she witnessed, and why they kept it from her, but she held her tongue.

Besides, there were no Diamonds on Earth. Pearl was the only one with a line to White Diamond, but other than that, there really was no gem in power for Rose to project her anger on.

Pearl seemed worried about the possibility of Rose accidentally giving them away, but Rose assured her it wouldn’t happen. She knew Pearl would be there for her and she knew getting angry would solve nothing.

She didn’t need to ask if Pearl would do something silly like tell White Diamond she showed Rose the Kindergarten. Pearl knew how to be quiet, and if she was acting odd, any gem noticing it would just mutter “feral pearl” and move on.

 

In any case, Rose doesn’t have too much time to dwell on what was happening at the Kindergarten because she was needed for a mission.

Because Homeworld was planning on making more Kindergartens, they’d need an understanding of the terrain and an easy way to get there, which meant they’d send jaspers and amethysts with a peridot or two out to explore. And of course, Rose would be coming along to make sure no one got hurt.

The gems assigned were two jaspers—Crybaby and Eyepatch—three amethysts—Fively, Tattle, and Quicke—one peridot, and of course, Rose Quartz. The jaspers were in a constant state of argument of who was a better fighter, and the amethysts were constantly getting distracted every little thing they came across. The peridot was trying to get them all to focus, but no quartz would ever listen to a peridot.

Needless to say, it was a long trip.

 

After a several miles, the amethysts come up with a game.

It starts when Quicke boasts that she’s fast enough to catch anything flying in the air using her whip, so Fively naturally takes that as a challenge and ropes down a feathered organic down from the sky.

“Don’t squeeze it so hard,” Rose suggests, “You’ll hurt it.”

Fively just snorts. Apparently, despite the fact that the creature was wriggling desperately, Rose was being overdramatic and doesn’t know what fun is.

“If _you_ can do it, so can I,” Quicke declares, “And I’ll do it _twice_ as fast.”

“But guys,” Tattle whines, “We’ll get in _trouble!_ We’re on a mission.”

“So you’re giving up then?” Fively grins. Tattle whines again.

“Even if she could beat _you_ ,” Quicke adds, “There’s no way she could beat _me._ ”

“Could too!” Tattle protests, “I could do better than both of you! Just watch me!”

Sometimes, Rose wishes quartzes were less competitive.

 

The organic Fively caught is forgotten soon enough, so Rose picks it up and examines it. The creature is terrified, understandably so, but it lets Rose look at its wings anyways. Thankfully, all it needs is a few tears before it goes back to its flock, flying a bit higher than the rest.

“Why waste your tears on something like _that?”_ Eyepatch growls. Everything she says sounds like a growl, so Rose doesn’t take it too personally.

“Aw, leave her be,” Crybaby says, “It’s not like it matters.”

 

Homeworld’s general philosophy was this: nothing matters, not like we do.

Wars were fought because gems believed they had more of a right to the resources on a planet then the natural inhabitants. Creatures died because gems needed to be made.

Rose had never really questioned it before, but it’s not like anything was happening now that she _was._ She was just a quartz. It was her first time leaving Homeworld. What could she do?

 

It didn’t matter if the organic was small and feathered or if it looked like a gem. An organic like one of the ones Rose had seen in the village got in Eyepatch’s way, and she slammed them down without hesitation.

Rose only had time to shed a few tears before the other gems yelled at her to hurry up.

 

The peridot enjoys the trip just as much as Rose, if not less. None of the other gems had seen a peridot’s weapon before, and were eagerly awaiting a chance for their technician to show hers off.

“First they want me to summon my weapon,” peridot mumbles, “Next they’ll want me to _fight.”_

Rose can’t really argue with this. Quartzes love a fight. And though peridots are a bit more muscular then pearls, it’s not by much. If a jasper or an amethyst fought peridot, she’d lose her form in a matter of seconds no matter what her weapon may be.

“It’s all right,” Rose reassures here, “I’ll do my best to make sure that doesn’t happen. Of course, I’m not much of a fighter either.”

The peridot snorts.

“You’re a _quartz_ ,” she says, “Forgive me if I’m wrong, but a shield shouldn’t stop you from fighting, especially one as strong as yours.”

This is one of the reasons Rose has always liked peridots. Sure, many of them were a bit conceited, but they were honest and resourceful gems. It was always a pleasure to work with them.

“You’re right, but I’m afraid I haven’t had much practice,” Rose agrees. A thought occurs to her suddenly, “How would you fight, if you had my shield?”

 _“Well,”_ The peridot begins, clearly loving the chance to show off her knowledge, “It’s still a shield, so you need to be careful on how you attack. Your best bet is to try and deal a fatality right away. Of course, because a shield is circular, it’s much easier to toss them something like a sword. Throwing at an angle is always a smart move—it’s harder to dodge something coming at you from behind and…”

The peridot trails off and looks at Rose suspiciously.

“What do you need this knowledge for, anyways?” she asks, “It’s not like anyone here will let you get _hurt.”_

“It never hurts to be prepared,” Rose replies, “We don’t know what we’ll encounter on this planet.”

The peridot itches her hand near her gem. Maybe they’d see her weapon after all.

 

Every time a gem whines about how long their journey is, the peridot reminds them that they aren’t even exploring all of Earth. To say that doesn’t help is an understatement.

They’re all getting restless. Rose is tired of taking soil samples. The jaspers want something to fight. The amethysts want a nap.

Peridot doesn’t say it, but Rose knows she just wants to be done with everything.

Rose doesn’t want to admit it, but she should have expected the violence.

Eyepatch gives up staying with the others. She says she’s here as a soldier, not a scout, and runs ahead, plowing down everything in her way.

“Technically, she’s still doing her job,” Crybaby says as they examine the ruins of a forest the other jasper left behind. Unlike Eyepatch, she’s perfectly fine with being a scout.

“It’s unprofessional,” The peridot mutters, “How are we supposed to take this planet’s resources if she keeps destroying them?”

Rose doesn’t say anything. There’s no point. Nothing she say will make the jasper stop.

“That’s jaspers for you,” Fively shrugs. There’s nothing they can do but follow the path ahead.

“Hey, since jasper cleared all the trees away, we can still play our game!” Quicke shouts. The amethysts cheer and summon their weapons. Peridot rolls her eyes.

It occurs to Rose that none of them care like she does, and that they may never see why she cares so much. Pearl would understand, Rose is sure of that. And even if she didn’t, she’d _try_ to.

Rose misses her.

The other gems wouldn’t understand that, either.

 

Truth be told, there wasn’t that much for them to do.

It was up to peridot to plan out where to put warp pads and it was up to Rose to decide where the Kindergartens should be. The rest of the gems were there to either be a bodyguard or survey the terrain, which peridot was also be recording with her gem. They had more than enough quartzes at the settlement to spare the ones who came along and none of them had protested at the time of their assignment, all eager to explore the new land.

Peridot could tell they wouldn’t get much more work done, and so she builds a warp pad near an open field. They brought with them enough resources to make one, just in case, and all of the gems agreed they’d rather use it then walk back themselves.

“Should we tell them we’re coming back?” Tattle asks. Fively snorts.

“How?” she asks, “We don’t have a wailing stone.”

“Amethysts 3F4L and 5F1L,” peridot says, “Kindly remove yourself while I work. I would like to get back before dark. Besides, they do know we are coming. This is well within the limits of our projected mission time.”

The amethysts roll their eyes, but Rose can tell they’re excited. She is too.

She can’t _wait_ to see Pearl.

 

When Rose finally greets Pearl, all her weariness vanishes.

“White Diamond would like a progress report,” Pearl replies, sounding official in a way that breaks Rose’s heart, “She requires a map of all created warp pads, and all warp pads planned on being created, and the same for Kindergartens.”

The gems with Rose all groan. Rose doesn’t understand what the big fuss is about and volunteers herself. The other gems look at her strangely, but Rose firmly believes that any time she spends with Pearl is time well spent.

“Thank you Rose Quartz,” Fively, Tattle and Quicke all chorus and immediately run off, probably to make up impressive stories to tell other amethysts.

“Come on now Pearl,” Rose says “I have a report for you to record.”

 

“So how was it?” Pearl asks, “After traveling that long, there must be something you’ve found enthralling!”

“Oh I _did,_ ” Rose sighs, happy to finally have someone to talk to about it. She tells Pearl everything; she tells her about the beauty she saw, and how much _destruction_ the gems caused just by walking through it. Pearl wasn’t surprised. Rose doesn’t think hearing anything about a gem being violent would surprise her. Pearl is more than a bit cynical, but she doesn’t know quartzes like Rose does.

One of the things that pain her the most is she knows that they _could_ listen to her. If she had more fighting experience, or if she was more violent or had any of the traits that gems expected to see in a quartz, the other gems would bow to her superior skills and leave all the organic life they tortured alone.

But she wasn’t like other quartzes.

She was _special._

Pearl looks at her, her expression a mixture of pity and understanding.

“Oh, it’s fine,” Rose waves her hand, hoping Pearl didn’t have some insight on her internal monologue, “I’m just a quartz. I don’t have a place unless I make one for myself. It’s only fair. But, that’s not the _point._ Pearl, we need to do something. The Earth won’t survive if we don’t.”

“I have a very limited skillset,” Pearl says, “But I will use them in whatever way I can to help you.”

“To help Earth,” Rose replies, then bites her lip, “But there’s not that much that we _could_ do. I’m just a quartz.”

“We could always rebel,” Pearl murmurs. Rose isn’t sure if she’s joking or just talking to herself, “They can’t kill a planet if you’re still on it.”

“I’ve always wanted to save something from dying,” Rose tells her, “I just never thought it’d be a planet.”

Pearl nods. Maybe she had been expecting this.

 

They plan.

Pearl tells Rose about how she learned to swordfight thanks to a human knight. Rose is surprised, mainly at the thought of Pearl talking to humans. Rose always suspected Pearl would learn to do something just as deadly and beautiful as her. She’s sure that sword fighting could be just that.

“We have everything we need to fight off Homeworld between the two of us,” Rose jokes, “I’ll be defense, and you’ll be offense!”

“The perfect team,” Pearl agrees.

 

Rose can’t help but feel as though she’s dragging Pearl down with her. Pearl isn’t a “proper” pearl, but that doesn’t mean she couldn’t have a life back on Homeworld. Homeworld won’t shatter her, not if they think she has nothing to do with Rose’s rebellion. She might not be the happiest, but she would be _alive._

She knows she needs to ask, somehow. Pearl knows what they’re getting into, Rose doesn’t doubt that, but she wants to make sure Pearl _knows._

So one day, when they’re planning their next move, Rose gives Pearl a sad smile and realizes that now’s a good a time as any.

 “Pearl,” she says carefully, “I’m going to stay and fight for this planet. You don’t have to do this with me.”

“But I _want_ to!” Pearl cries, frustrated. Rose expected her to say as much, but she had something she planned on saying and she needed to make sure Pearl heard it.

“I know you do,” Rose continues, “Please, please understand if we lose, we’ll be killed, and if we win, we can never go home.”

“Why would I ever want to go home,” Pearl asks slowly, “If you’re here?”

Pearl’s answer isn’t immediate, but her pause is so small Rose knows there was never a doubt in the other gem’s mind they’d stay together.

Rose chuckles and holds out her hand. She had been hoping Pearl would say something like that. It sounds like a proclamation of love, and Rose knows she needs to respond with one of her own.

“My Pearl,” Rose says. It’s not a proclamation of ownership. It’s not even a proclamation of loyalty, not like the ones they give to the Diamonds. It’s a proclamation of love.

She loves Pearl. And she respects her.

An eternity on an abandoned planet means nothing if it’s with her.

She reaches out her hand.

Pearl takes it. There are tears in her eyes.

They go to fight for the future.

For Earth.

**Author's Note:**

> ahhh I'm not sure what I should say here? thank you for reading this it feels like ive been writing it for years.  
> Basically this was born from me thinking that considering how little followers they had at the begining of the rebellion, Rose became famous because of her status as rebellion leader, and the gems followed her because of THAT, not because she was a diamond  
> Stay tuned for a Pearl companion piece, which will be posted shortly, and will be just as long


End file.
